Soldiers May Assist Archeological Digs in Yesha

IDF may send soldiers to take part in digs for a few days to connect to their past.

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 12/29/2011, 9:36 PM

Herodium excavation.

Flash 90

The IDF Civil Administration is considering sending soldiers to take part in archeological excavations in Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron, or Yesha). The soldiers will participate in digs for a few days, as part of military courses, reports the IDF Website's Florit Shoychet.

One specific archeological site will apparently be chosen as the location that soldiers are sent to. This will make the logistical challenges involved less daunting. Planning of the program is to proceed apace next year, but implementation will take longer to begin.

The officer in charge of archeology in the Civil Administration, Hananya Hizmi, told IDF Website: "We want to give soldiers the opportunity to expose the past through digging, so that history speaks to the soldiers not from books – but from the rocks."

Hizmi added that the sites chosen for digging will be "out of the way" and thus lass politicized.